Obama, Rachel Goldstein Really Hitting It Off On Group Trip To Israel

JERUSALEM—Participants on Taglit Shorashim’s Israel Experience trip reported Wednesday that a special bond was clearly forming between President Barack Obama, 51, and Cleveland-area high school senior Rachel Goldstein, 16, while on a 10-day bus tour through the Holy Land. “It was obvious from the icebreakers we did at the kibbutz that first Shabbat that something was going on with them,” said Shira Weiss, 16, of best friend Goldstein and President Obama, adding that the pair walked together on the sunrise hike to Mount Masada, split off entirely from the group during the Dead Sea excursion, and always sit together on the bus. “You should have seen them at Yad Vashem—they were practically holding hands. It’s so cute.” When reached for comment at a group excursion to the Wailing Wall, Obama reportedly told other members of the trip that “nothing’s going on, Rachel’s just really cool,” adding that he was “kind of in a relationship back home.”